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Module 10 - Part
2: Explorations and Exercises
Other parts of this module include:
Index | Part
1: Overview | Part
3: Texts and Contexts | Part
4: Web Resources
Labor, Free and Unfree, in the 18th and 19th Centuries
To respond to these exercises, it helps to have some appreciation
of the cultural assumptions explored in them. Click on Web
Resources for further insights into the way ideas about
the human and divine in each culture colors the literary
texts that we are studying.
These questions are arranged into three color-coded categories.
Level A invites you to look closely
at some specific aspects of individual texts. Answering these
questions shows that you have read carefully and understand
the significance of important words and ideas as they appear
in context.
Level B asks you to think more
deeply about the implications of some of the details that
you have isolated.
Level C allows you to build on
the findings of the first two categories to theorize broadly
about the relationship of the text to social and historical
forces beyond the work itself.
Topics in this module's Exploration and Exercises section include:
Focus on The Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
Level A
- How does Douglass distinguish throughout his Narrative between
the experience of the field hand (first mentioned in
his description of his mother in Chapter 1) and that
of the city slave?
- Why are the slaves who man the Sally Lloyd ,
Captain Auld's sloop, so highly esteemed by the other
slaves (see p. 926)?
- Why was it forbidden to teach a slave to read? What
connection does the ability to read have with the capacity
to obey one's master?
- How does Edward Covey succeed in breaking Frederick
? What kind of work does he force him to do?
- What are Covey's economic circumstances? To what extent
do they explain his actions?
- Describe Fred's apprenticeship in the shipbuilding
trade. How does his view of work change after he learns
how to caulk?
Level B
- Douglass frequently uses biblical and religious references.
How do they deepen his argument? Why is it suggestive,
for example, that he compares Colonel Lloyd's wealth
to that of Job (p. 930)? What does he imply by calling
his fellow slaves "men and women of sorrow, and acquainted
with grief" (p. 943)?
- Animal images abound in Douglass's Narrative .
How does he use the image of the serpent? See, for example,
his preference for the "condition of the meanest reptile
to my own" (p. 941) and compare it to his description
of Covey as a snake (p. 950). To what other kinds of
animals does he refer? How do they differ from snakes?
To whom are these other images applied and why?
- How does Douglass learn to read? What incentives does
he offer to his teachers? What native abilities does
Douglass demonstrate here and elsewhere?
- In what ways does Douglass seem to be an instinctive
teacher? Comment on his establishment of a Sunday school
and his ultimate motive for writing his Narrative .
Level C
- Sophia Auld, Douglass tells us, "was by trade a weaver" (p.
937). What other connections between women and weaving
can you recall from your study of literature? How does
this form of labor embody the traditional understanding
of women's work?
- When Douglass has mastered caulking and begins to
sell his own services, he increasingly resents having
to give his money to Hugh Auld, comparing his master's
ability to compel his earnings from him to the "right
of the grim-visaged pirate upon the high seas" (p. 967).
What is the relationship of the pirate to a society's
established economic power? Is Hugh Auld really a pirate?
Discuss the economic analysis that Douglass offers here
and elsewhere and compare it to Marx's understanding
of class warfare.
Focus on Romantic Lyrics: Blake and Heine
Level A
- The Anthology footnote to line 3 of Blake's
first Chimney Sweeper poem explains that the
lisping child cannot pronounce the s in "sweep." What
effect does Blake achieve by recording this speech impediment?
- What does Blake mean by his reference to "dark Satanic
Mills" in the hymn "And Did Those Feet"?
- Is Satan a presence in the mills Heine writes about
in The Silesian Weavers ? What is the progression
of ideas from stanza 2 to 3 to 4 in this poem? Who bears
responsibility for the suffering of the weavers?
Level B
- Contrast the tone of the speaker's reference to the
chimney sweepers in London with the voices
of the Chimney Sweepers in the two poems so titled. How
do the different voices register Blake's opinion of organized
religion and of the suffering of children?
- What mood among the Silesian workers do the opening
lines of Heine's poem evoke? Compare Blake's speakers
in the Poems of Innocence and of Experience .
- Although the poems of Blake and Heine focus on small
units of workers, they manage to attack a whole society.
Does each aim at the same target? Compare and contrast
the problems their poems dissect. Are they primarily
economic, political, or spiritual? Be sure to provide
textual evidence for your analysis.
Level C
- Why is the image of all of the sweepers "locked up
in coffins of black" so appropriate to the actual circumstances
of their working lives? Consult the discussions available
in the Web Resources section to respond to this question.
- At the end of Chapter 2 of his Narrative ,
Douglass describes the "wild notes" of the slaves' songs.
What does this passage suggest about his understanding
of the role of poetry? How would you compare Blake's
invention of poems for his various speakers in the states
of innocence and experience? What do their utterances
allow them to express?
- Compare Blake's attitude toward the role played by
religion in the lives of the poor with Douglass's view
of religion and slavery.
- Compare Blake's and Heine's use of stanzaic form.
How important is repetition? How important is rhyme?
Comment on the ways in which structure contributes to
the emotional impact of these poems?
- How are the Silesian Weavers different from traditional
female weavers? What changes in the relationship between
domestic and industrialized labor does their experience
encapsulate? (See question C1 on Douglass's Narrative and
the Web Resources for discussions of the plight of the
weavers.)
- How does Heine's Silesian Weavers describe
the lives of the workers? Technically, these were not "unfree
laborers," but Engels speaks of them as slaves (see Web
Resources). Given the details in their song, how would
you categorize them? Do their opportunities differ from
those available to slaves?
Focus on Billy Budd, Sailor
Level A
- What is the history of a master-at-arms? How have
the responsibilities of the position evolved?
- In which parts of the ship do Billy and Claggart work?
How does Melville use this information to develop his
characterization of their natures?
Level B
- Melville goes to great lengths to describe the physical
appearance and cultural backgrounds of his characters.
Ostensibly, this is a narrative about sailors on a warship;
it seems simultaneously to be an allegory about three
noblemen. Discuss Billy, Claggart, and Vere in terms
of the narrator's delineation of their inherited traits
and physiognomies and comment on the relationship between
them and the occupations and duties they must perform.
- The narrator allows himself a few "bypaths" (Chapter
4) in telling his story, many of which seem to question
human freedom. How does his rumination on the character
of Lord Nelson suggest that Nelson chose his destiny?
What is the significance of the references to Calvinism
and fate that Melville's narrator ponders at the end
of Chapter 11 (p. 1015) and elsewhere?
- How does the naming of the ship that was the occasion
of Captain Vere's receiving his death wound (once called St.
Louis , it had become the Athee , or Atheist )
complicate the narrative's allusions to religious terms?
What textual evidence can you offer to show that the
world of Billy Budd, Sailor is (or is not)
ruled by divine forces?
Level C
- Billy Budd is an illiterate "foundling" (p. 1000)
who becomes a satisfied sailor. Compare his childhood
and his temperament with those of Frederick Douglass.
What does Melville wish to emphasize in his portrait
of Billy? Would Douglass have admired Billy Budd's attributes,
or prospered had he been like him?
- In his Narrative , Frederick Douglass describes
the murder of a slave named Demby by Mr. Gore, who justified
his action as cautionary measure: "He was setting a dangerous
example to the other slaves,-one which, if suffered to
pass without some demonstration on his part, would finally
lead to the total subversion of all rule and order" (p.
933). Compare and contrast Captain Vere's motives in
hanging Billy Budd. What moral distinctions, if any,
do you find between the two actions?
Focus on European Realists: Dostoevsky,
Tolstoy, Ibsen, Chekhov
Level A
- Tolstoy begins The Death of Ivan Ilych at
the end and then traces the development of his protagonist
as a professional and as a human being. Explain your
understanding of the famous sentence at the opening of
the second section: "Ivan Ilych's life had been most
simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible." What
is wrong with the way he has lived? How much of his failure
has to do with his professional practices?
- How does Tolstoy use Gerasim's costume and physique
to draw a contrast between his nature and that of the
Golovin family?
- In The Lady with the Dog , Gurov gives Anna
Sergeyevna a brief autobiographical sketch upon their
first meeting: "he was really a philologist, but worked
in a bank" and "had at one time trained himself to sing
in a private opera company" (p. 1525). How would you
interpret this information? What does Gurov's choice
of career and his sense of options not pursued tell us
about his character?
- Ibsen roots each of the major characters in Hedda
Gabler in a professional milieu that tells us
a great deal about them as individuals. Show how Hedda
has been shaped by her father's social class and military
career; explain how the contrast between Tesman and
Loevborg is communicated by the different ways in which
they study history; and demonstrate the way that Judge
Brack's legal experience determines his strategy in
pursuing Hedda's affection.
Level B
- The Cherry Orchard 's Lopahinhas becomes a
wealthy merchant but he cannot forget that he was born
a peasant, the son of a serf. In proposing his solution
to the problem of the family's debts, he takes into account
the rise of an entirely new class: "summer people." Who
are these people? How does the remedy Lopahin invents
reflect the complexity of his relationship to the family
who used to own his and to his own past?
- The Cherry Orchard fails to explain the qualifications
that earn Gayev the 6,000-ruble position that he is about
to take up in the bank as the play ends. How would you
account for his good fortune? Why is it easier for him
to find a niche than for his sister? What is Chekhov
telling us here about the way the social order has changed-or
has not?
- Examine the scenes in which Ivan Ilych consults various
doctors. What self-recognition comes to him as he observes
the way in which he is treated by "the celebrated doctor" (p.
1438)? Why do encounters with professionals whose help
we need tend to be ego-deflating experiences?
- What does Dostoevsky's Underground Man tell us in
the beginning of his monologue about his employment history?
Compare his insights into his refusal to accept bribes
and his way of treating petitioners to Ivan Ilych's examination
of his own professional conduct. How would you relate
the behavior they describe to your personal experiences
with bureaucrats? Discuss how some of the points made
by Dostoevsky and Tolstoy help us to understand the behavior
of employees of what we now call the "service sector."
Level C
- Russian literature offers many portraits of civil
servants. Look at the Web site of the Rutgers University
art exhibit on nineteenth-century Russian art in the
Web Resources section and explore the relationship between
one or more of the cartoons collected there and your
reading of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and/or Chekhov, showing
how their subject matter and tone relate to each other.
- Most of the characters in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and
Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard are identified
according to their occupations. Compare the identifying
markers in the dramatis personae of ancient and pre-modern
plays, on the one hand, and of modern and contemporary
plays, on the other. How do different historical periods
and cultures denote the significance of their characters?
What do the differences suggest about our capacity for
self-understanding?
Focus on Olauduh Equiano, The Life
of Gustavus Vassa
Level A
- Equiano was about twelve years old when he was put
upon the ship that took him across the Atlantic . Why
does he think that he is among "spirits"? What was his
explanation for things that were new to him? Find some
examples of his struggle to understand what he sees.
- Equiano reflects that those who traffic in slavery
are not "born worse than other men" (Chapter 5). How
does he explain the cruelty that they commit? What images
does he use to describe the way corruption spreads?
- In the world that Equiano describes, when is it permissible
to kill a slave? When is killing a slave subject to a
monetary penalty? How much? Discuss Equiano's reaction
in Chapter 5 of The Life of Gustavus Vassa in
light of the way life and property are valued in the
slave economy of the West Indies .
- At what rate do African slaves require replacement
in the West Indies , according to Equiano? Discuss the
rhetorical strategy that he adopts in raising this point.
Level B
- When so many slaves died during the passage to the
Americas , why did the Europeans deal so severely with
attempted suicides? In describing conditions aboard ship,
Equiano expresses envy of those who drowned. Would you
consider him a suicidal type?
- In these early chapters of his autobiography, one
can see how interested Equiano is in financial transactions.
Choose one or two moments in which he reflects on slaves'
efforts to improve their economic lot and offer your
own comments on the kinds of opportunities that were
available for slaves to conduct some independent business
while they served their masters.
Level C
- How would you compare the evidence offered by Equiano
and by Douglass in discussing the economic consequences
of slavery? Find some examples of the tone of voice and
the moral position that each one takes in references
to slave auctions and the role of slave labor in the
management of the great plantations. If you see differences
between them, how would their distinctive life experiences
perhaps account for them?
- The Life of Gustavus Vassa was published
in 1789, the fateful year of the French Revolution. Does
Equiano's writing style seem revolutionary? Compare his
command of sentence structure and allusion with Douglass's
style in his Narrative . What models seem to
have influenced their styles?
- Note the opening section of Billy Budd, Sailor ,
in which the narrator admires "a common sailor so intensely
black that he must needs have been a native African of
the unadulterated blood of Ham" (p. 995). What reaction
does this account of a "Handsome Sailor"'s "barbaric
good humor," with its characteristically complicated
reference to ancient Assyrian priests, evoke? How do
you think Equiano would view this episode?
- Billy Budd, Frederick Douglass, and Olauduh Equiano
each witness a terrifying scene of whipping at an early
stage in their stories. Compare and contrast the motives
for the whipping and the lessons that each draws from
what he has observed. How does Melville, who writes fiction,
use the episode for purposes of his plot (see the beginning
of Chapter 9)? How would you contrast the use Douglass
makes of the scene that concludes his first chapter with
Equiano's own first experience of flogging in the second
chapter of his book?
Focus on Harriet Jacobs, Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself
Level A
- In the opening paragraph of "The Jealous Mistress," Jacobs
(writing as Linda Brent) says that she would rather have
worked on a cotton plantation than served in the home
of her master and mistress. Equiano and Douglass, on
the other hand, are grateful for not having spent their
time as slaves as field hands. How would you explain
the discrepancy between these points of view?
- What does Jacobs tell us about the life of her mistress?
How did her mistress's position as her husband's second
wife complicate her attitude toward her female slaves?
- Describe the circumstances in which Jacobs survived
for "seven years concealed."
- Jacobs indicates that her "life in slavery was comparatively
devoid of hardships." How does she manage to inform her
readers of how much worse other slaves' experiences were?
Level B
- The experience of enclosure that Jacobs endured functions
as an emblem of slavery in a variety of ways. Compare
her voluntary self-claustration with instances of hiding
and deception in Douglass's and Equiano's narratives.
- What are the connotations of the word loophole ?
Discuss the actual and symbolic importance of the hole
that Jacobs is able to bore into the crawlspace to which
she is confined so that she has light and air and the
opportunity to view the activities taking place on the
street below her.
- What happens to family relationships in a slave culture?
Compare and contrast the interactions of grandmother,
mother, and child in the narratives of Jacobs and Douglass.
Level C
- One of Jacobs's special contributions to the genre
of the slave narrative was to document the sexual abuse
of female slaves. Douglass obliquely explores the same
topic in his description of the whipping of his aunt
at the end of the Chapter 1 of his Narrative .
Compare and contrast the psychological insight each offers
into the motives for this sexual exploitation, the means
by which it was perpetuated, and the reasons why it was
condoned.
- In an essay called "Three Southern Women and Freud:
A Non-Exceptionalist Approach to Race, Class, and Gender
in the Slave South" (originally published in Ann-Louise
Shapiro, Ed., Feminists Revision History [New
Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1994] and reprinted in the Norton
Critical Edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl , Nellie Y. McKay and Frances Smith Foster,
Eds.), Nell Irvin Painter compares the situations of
Freud's Dora and "Linda Brent" as victims of a powerful
man's unwanted sexual attentions. Write a paper that
compares and contrasts the victimization of the two women
and speculate on the analytical tools that Freud might
have used in analyzing sexual relations between masters
and slaves.
Focus on Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The
Communist Manifesto
Level A
- What is the key to understanding history and society,
according to The Communist Manifesto ?
- What has happened to the reverence with which professional
callings ("the physician, the lawyer, the priest") used
to be regarded, according to Marx and Engels? What is
the cause of the transformation they describe?
- Define "the proletariat" and "the bourgeoisie." What
is the relationship between them?
Level B
- What has caused the economic crisis that the analysis
of Marx and Engels presumes? What is wrong with the productive
capacity of modern bourgeois society? What do they assert
has happened to workers as a consequence of the new means
of organizing labor that the Industrial Revolution created?
- Marx and Engels point to the contrast between the "miserable
highways" of the middle ages and the railways of the
nineteenth century. How do differences in the ease of
transportation contribute to the economic and political
crisis that they address? How does nineteenth-century
literature use the railway as a scene-and as a metaphor-for
power transactions among individuals? Find and discuss
some examples in Hedda Gabler and/or in the
works of Chekhov and Tolstoy.
- How many writers that you have studied depict the
working class as revolutionaries, as Marx and Engels
believed them to be? Compare and contrast the workers
depicted in the poems of Blake and Heine or the different
impressed men in Billy Budd, Sailor in this
context. How many of these figures seem incipient communists
to you? In its understanding of human motivation, where
may the analysis of The Communist Manifesto be
inadequate?
Level C
- How would you apply a Marxist vocabulary to the institutions
of slavery witnessed by Equiano, Douglass, and Jacobs?
Examine an incident from any of these authors and comment
on the degree to which class struggle explains its causes
and effects.
- Could one analyze the tensions among the leading characters
in Hedda Gabler or The Cherry Orchard in
terms of the conflict between the proletariat and the
bourgeoisie? What views of "Law, morality, religion" that
the proletarian is said to view as "so many bourgeois
prejudices" do characters like Ibsen's Loevborg and Judge
Brack or Chekhov's Trofimov entertain? How much does
social rank contribute to the malaise of the characters
in these plays? What other factors that Marx and Engels
do not discuss also deserve consideration?
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